Shingaani Old Town

Shingaani, Shingani, Shangaani, Shangani, Shungani. The Somali language has a lot of flexibility and variation when it comes to spelling. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and however you spell this medieval city district, the ruins still look like somewhere that hasn't been inhabited in decades or centuries. Except that it's filled with people. Collapsed and destroyed stone buildings share the landscape with brand new apartment complexes, and between it all, life goes on seemingly as normal.

The city of Mogadishu is over 1,000 years old. Most estimates place its founding around 900 AD, although it might be even older. By the late Middle Ages, it had become a wealthy city-state, instrumental in trade along the coast of east Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Only two of the city's districts existed back then: Xamarwayne (Hamarwayne, Hamar-Weine, Xamar Weyne...) and Shingaani. By the 1700s, a shockingly heated rivalry had developed between them due to family alliances and competition for resources, and it literally divided the city in two, both politically and physically. Walls were built to separate the districts and control movement, with a small neutral zone as a buffer in between. Different lineages and family names were associated with each district, and with rare exceptions, nobody would move to the opposite district from the one fated to them by birth. Over time, the districts even gained slightly different dialects.

The gutting of Shingaani began with Italy. The country took direct colonial control of Mogadishu in 1905, and really began reshaping the city in the 1920s after the rise of Italian fascism. The city walls were torn down, changing the fabric of the city forever. This was followed by the demolition of old buildings (and a medieval cemetery) in Shingaani to make way for modern Italian architecture, and new wide streets named after famous Italians. Soon, Shingaani was declared a place exclusively for white Europeans; all the locals were evicted and forced to rebuild their homes outside the two old districts. Shingaani became the seat of power for a segregational system that controlled where Somalis could be and when, with the Italians completely separated into their own mini-city within the city.

In 1940, an official proposal was put forward to finish destroying nearly everything in Shingaani, and complete its transformation into something purely Italian. However, all plans were put on hold forever because of World War II. Britain invaded and occupied Mogadishu in 1941, and Italy would never again hold such immense power over Somalia. Although Italian administration returned in 1950, a United Nations mandate required Italy to prepare Somalia for independence after 10 years, in 1960. Thus Old Shingaani managed to partially survive into Somalia's post-colonial independence.

Unfortunately, the job was mostly finished at the start of the Somali Civil War in 1991. Rival clan militias targeted Shingaani and destroyed buildings there by hand, one by one. Most of the destruction seen there today comes from this era. Anything that survived has since been further threatened by neglect. Shingaani's most famous building is the Mogadishu Lighthouse, standing on the beach just next to the border with Xamarwayne (in the pre-colonial era this area was the neutral no man's land between the two districts, but in our modern bureaucratic world of exact divisions, it is now Shingaani). This lighthouse has long been an iconic symbol of the city, even being featured on the back of the 1,000 Somali shilling note. Though it survived the war, half of it collapsed in 2023, leaving just a cross-section standing.

But there is more to today's Shingaani than just destruction. It is still a living community where people live, work, and play. New modern buildings have been built, and quality of life is slowly increasing again. The activity that goes on here every day is the exact opposite of what you'd expect from the word "ruins". Though Shingaani's story is a tragic one that highlights the fragility of history, it also highlights the resilience of human beings.